Mistake #4: Punish All Your Clients Because of One Bad Apple

They decide that because one crappy client perpetually sends the crew away from their scheduled mow that all clients will be charged a trip fee if they cancel on-site.

This can alienate good clients, ones that pay on time and love your business.

Don’t punish good clients because another client takes advantage of you. Drop that terrible client and extend your best customer service to good clients who make a bad choice every once in a while.

Mistake #5: Being Unreliable

You can’t be counted on.

So you lose another client.

This is a simple concept that my dad taught me, “When you say you’re gonna do something, do it.”

Really.

If you tell Ms. Smith that you’ll take care of her lawn every Tuesday, take care of her lawn every Tuesday. Meet the expectations you agree to, or you can bet that the next lawn care company that knocks on Ms. Smith’s door with have her attention.

Mistake #6: The ‘Meh’ Factor

You finish Ms. Smith’s lawn, get your equipment back on your trailer and leave while her dog barks at you.

She sips her coffee, grabs the paper and surveys your work. She yawns.

Your service needs to “WOW” her. Blow her mind.

The newspaper that you tossed out of the way three times while mowing, should’ve been hand-delivered (you see her reading it every Tuesday).

You should know that her dog’s name is Rowdy. You could’ve waved. Anything that made her feel a positive connection with you.

Mistake #7: Your Unnecessary Rent

If the answer to both of these questions is no, you don’t need to rent space.

It might make you feel like a “real business owner.” That feeling, while a victory, doesn’t pay the rent on that building, storage space, or office. It doesn’t pay to keep the lights on or the air conditioner running.

Cody Owen

Cody is a copywriter with Service Autopilot. He was writing before he could read, dictating stories to his mom. Of late, he distills business principles and practices learned from his ever-increasing trove of books and his year with SA Support into digestible blog posts designed to provide maximum value to service industry business owners.